Question

I was employed as a casual for a two-week block covering a teacher on sick leave. After two weeks this was extended for a further two weeks for the same vacancy and this was repeated until I had worked for a whole term. Can I apply to have this work changed to a temporary appointment? If I do, what happens to my pay?

Answer

Where a teacher was initially employed as a full time casual for a period of less than four weeks, conversion from casual to temporary can occur if the period of casual employment extended beyond 10 working weeks.

The request for this conversion must be made by the employee within four weeks from the end of the casual employment. The conversion would be from the date of the original commencement of the employment.

The effect on pay would depend upon an individual teacher’s rate of pay. Keep in mind, however, that the maximum rate at which a casual teacher can be paid is only step 8 while a temporary teacher can be paid at up to step 13 of the salary scale. Following the request from the teacher for a conversion from casual to temporary, the Department of Education and Communities (DEC) will advise the teacher in writing of their conversion entitlements (an over- or under-payment) including a detailed calculation sheet, including information provided to the Australian Tax Office by the DEC.

This advice is general in nature and members should contact Federation for advice and/or support in specific situations. Terry Moriarty is a Relief Officer and Amber Flohm is the Multicultural Officer/Organiser.